If you’re looking for some tanks to support your 15mm German infantry, then you might be interested in The Plastic Soldier Company’s new set of Panzer III’s that have just gone up for pre-order.

When it comes to tanks I am admittedly something of a newbie, getting lost as soon as a vehicle gets much bigger than a Citroen C1. Here’s what Plastic Soldier Company have to say about the set:

Easy Assembly plastic injection moulded 15mm German Panzer III Ausf J, L, M, N tank. Five vehicles in the box and each sprue gives options to build either an early J, late J, M, N or Flammpanzer and comes with 2 crew figures, schurzen and a variety of stowage. - The Plastic Soldier Company

The variants available in this set will let you build the Panzers that you need for your specific army. Plastic Soldier’s 15mm sculpts tend to use slightly more realistic proportions than the standard Flames of War minis, but they still make for a useful addition when building your force.

Ooooooooooooh shit! That looks amazing! I’ve been holding out on starting Flames of War but when I see such amazing alternatives to Battlefronts minis for a significantly less amount of £££ then the insidious siren call of the plastic crack becomes difficult to ignore!

I know what you mean about alternative to Battlefront, @dice . I’ve had some good luck with Zvezda but the detail quality of the Zvezda miniature is a *slightly* low (until you spend time bringing it up yourself, anyway). These Plastic Soldier pieces might be the best of both worlds, good detail quality at a low price. How they get away with it? A lot of pieces in the kit, maybe, which allows them to use easier (cheaper) molds? But for a hobbyist, lots of pieces should be no big deal.

Anyway, lots of pieces “self-governs” us from building too many of these. The Germans were supposed to be outnumbered most of the time, remember?

I sense a nefarious plan, @dice, in regards to your project, well fitted to your avatar picture.

You’re right, you absolutely cannot argue with the price on Zvezda miniatures, and can look just as detailed as any other … they just need a little love. We put some of our work with Zvezdas up on this BoW link:

This Plastic Soldier PzKpfw-IIII, on the other hand, look just as great as Battlefront without homemade extras. And they’re not bad in the price department either, over here in the US I’m looking at 5-vehicle platoon sets for $27, working out to $5.50 (3.3 pounds) per vehicle.

Also, it sounds like you get lots of extras like a lot of Battlefront platoon or company boxes gives you (allowing you to choose between different variants of a given vehicle). I will definitely have to give Plastic Soldier a try.

Plastic Soldier Company never ceases to amaze it seems. Another stunning, affordable and quality kit indeed.

As for the Pz3 itself, never been a fan of it myself (despite being a big ww2 fan of german tech). I’d still buy this though for Flames of War as the Pz3 was a big part of the german army for a long time.

I hear what you’re saying about the Mark III, @grimthara . Just never had the firepower or resilience against its opponents, even as early as France and Low Countries in 1940. Hull and turret ring were not large enough for significant upgrades like you see with the Mark IV. Still, it’s tough to have a German battlegroup early or mid war without at least some of these things. I’ve used them heavily in Barbarossa-themed campaigns and coming up in a new Desert War campaign.

IS-2s vs PzKpfw IIIs not cricket? Sure it is, if the IS-2 is the bat and the PzKpfw III is the ball! . I know what you mean, though. Not only unfair but a little inaccurate. By the time the IS-2 comes out the Mark III had pretty much been withdrawn, except StG IIIs and the like.

Building a lot of British stuff myself at the moment. Matildas and Crusaders for a Desert War project.

I have PSC plastics and Battlefront plastics – the PSC stuff has more pieces but goes together easily enough. Lifelike proportions, especially on the infantry (no Cabbageheads). They work perfectly well in FOW, Battlegroup Kursk, Command Decision, any 15mm game at all.

Battlefront is due to push out several new plastic kits this year. In fact I think they’ve already released a panzer IV kit. I’d love to see how they stack up against each other (price, quality, etc). I mean PSC plastic kit vs BF plastic kit, as apposed to PSC plastic kit vs BF resin/metal kit.